Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Let me be radically honest with you (this may hurt), creating a photo in Auto mode is comparable to feeding yourself from a vending machine. You click a button, you view limited options, you settle for what the machine gives you. Not very satisfying!

Placing your camera in Auto mode is not taking a photo; it’s a snap shot. You may love it, you may be excited about what you captured, you may enlarge the print and hang it on your wall as art, but it is not a photograph.

Our fist two workshops have sold out and we will be announcing a third date later in the week. This will be our last workshop in 2012: book now or wait till 2013.

I want to give a brief overview of what the workshop will be (you can see the tear sheet here for the nuts and bolts of the class). This workshop is a “Human-Centered” approach to creating photos that you want to capture. It is not a “Machine-Supremacy” approach on how to scroll through the never-ending menu options in your camera. If you are only applying the built-in-do-it-for-you Auto functions then you are really not doing anything.

Notice in the last paragraph I use “Human-Centered” vs. “Machine-Supremacy” approach to creating a photo: also notice that I used quotes and capitals letters...I’m not messing around.

The purpose of the workshop is to enrich your interaction with the camera. You will go from isolating limitation of Auto mode to having the courage to place your camera in Manual mode and take responsibility for what you wish to create. With responsibility comes experience, enjoyment, learning a new skill and crazy amounts of self confidence that you will be able to apply in all aspects of your life.

At this spot I must pause to say this next sentence with full disclosure:

I am not anti-technology nor anti-digital anything. I love all the glories and splendor that digital technology has given to me. Steve Jobs I mourn you, Kodak I mourn you and this is my point: you must know where you came from to know where you want to go.

Digital technology is good, giving your creative control over to a machine is bad.

This workshop will teach you to think of your camera as an instrument of unlimited potential, not a vending machine where you press a button with limited choices.